scription or even list of the Mycenaean works; they may be found fully illustrated in the works mentioned below.

These two periods were not without their records. In Crete have been found tablets of clay bearing inscriptions in at least two different systems of writing, neither of which has been deciphered. See WRITING.

The ethnological relations of these civilizations are as yet an unsolved problem. Some scholars hold that we have here a more or less homogeneous race, developing along its own lines, but largely influenced by the intercourse with the East, which is clearly proved for the Mycenæan and later pre-Mycenæan periods. Some even go so far as to deny any Hellenic or Indo-European character to this race. Such views probably go too far. More probable is the view that, while the Stone Age and the earlier Bronze Age reveal to us the presence of a pre-Greek people, possibly the ancestors of the later Carians and Eteocretans, the Mycenæan remains belong to the conquering Greek race, the Achæans of the Homeric poems which contain a reminiscence of this early age of splendor, as preserved by the Greek colonists of Asia Minor. This is not to say that all the descriptions of the poems apply to life in this early age, for the poet has naturally used customs of his own time; and it is merely the general conditions and the traditional glories of the past that he has embodied in his verses. The chronological limits of these periods are determined by the presence of datable Egyptian objects in western sites, and more closely perhaps by the presence of Egean importations in Egypt. The details are still much disputed, but the general results show that the later developments of the pre-Mycenæan Period may be placed from c.2500 B.C. to 1800 B.C., while the Mycenæan products were known in Egypt at least as early as B.C. 1550 in a well-developed form. The Mycenæan Age ends about B.C. 1000, or possibly a little later, and for a century or more before that time there is an obvious decline in artistic power. It must be remembered, however, that though superseded, the peculiar Mycenæan motives do not seem to have been lost, for they reappear at various points in the following period, especially in some of the local varieties of painted vases. BIBLIOGRAPHY. Schuchhardt, Schliemann'sAusgrabungen im Lichte der heutigen Wissenschaft (Leipzig, 1890), the best résumé of the subject, English translation, edited by Leaf (London, 1891); Milchhöffer, Anfänge der Kunst in Griechenland (Leipzig, 1883), a thorough and scientific discussion of the subject; Mitchell, History of Ancient Sculpture (New York, 1883), Vol. I. chap x., where Milchhöffer's work is summarized; Baumeister, "Mykenai," "Tiryns," "Kyklopenbau" in Denkmaler des klassischen Alterthums, admirably illustrated (Munich, 1884-88); Perrot and Chipiez, Histoire de l'art dans l'antiquité, Volume VI. (Paris, 1894); the English translation is sadly inaccurate and cannot be recommended; the work is richly illustrated; Tsountas and Manatt, The Mycenaean Age (Boston, 1897), a valuable summary at the date of publication; Hall, The Oldest Civilization in Greece (London and Philadelphia, 1901); Ridgeway, The Early Age of Greece (Cambridge, 1901); valuable for its material, but the author's theories are not generally accepted. Most of the recent reports and

discussions are to be found in the periodicals named above.

III. EARLY HELLENIC PERIOD. The dark age, from the Dorian invasion to the rise of sculpture in the Seventh Century B.C., is bridged, from an archæological point of view, chiefly by the painted vases, the earliest varieties of which have been already mentioned. It seems clear that we are now in the presence of a new element. The whole style of ornamentation is changed. For the Age of Bronze we now find the Age of Iron. Gold ornaments are much rarer. The whole style of the pottery has changed. The prevailing decoration, not merely on vases, but on metal ornaments, is the 'geometric,' i.e. meander-patterns, circles, and various combinations of straight lines. The situation well agrees with the overturning of the old Achæan kingdoms by the invading Dorians, as pictured in Greek legend.

The funereal urns and other representatives of the so-called "Dipylon style" (from the Dipylon gate of Athens, in ancient tombs near which the finest specimens of this class have been discovered) appear to extend over a period from about B.C. 1000 to about B.C. 700 at latest. The patterns upon this pottery are "geometric," derived from carving and textile fabrics, rather than from nature, as in the Mycenæan ware. The human and animal figures upon them are eminently schematic and conventional. Figures of nautical scenes (sea - fights and the like) and funeral processions are prominent. The figured examples seem to be introduced later than those with merely a geometric pattern, though this style continues in use till the end. It is not improbable that Athens was the seat of its manufacture.

The Mycenæan influences seem to have survived on the islands and the Asiatic coast, where also the connection with the Orient was maintained, and in consequence we find in these regions the development of a number of local types, all strongly influenced by Oriental motives, and yet with well-marked peculiarities. The favorite decoration is with rows of animals; lions, boars, panthers, cattle, deer, as well as griffins and sphinxes, appear, either in procession, or grouped heraldically. By the Seventh Century these have crowded back the geometric types, and, further, the merely ornamental decoration begins to give place to actual scenes, either of daily life or from the legends of the past. For the pottery, see VASES.

About the opening of the Seventh Century begins the class of Corinthian vases still strongly Oriental, but later exhibiting the mythological scenes. The commercial importance of Corinth during the Seventh and Sixth centuries gave this ware a wide distribution, and many of the best specimens have been found in Italy. Chaleis also developed a local style of wide distribution, and both Corinth and Chalcis contributed to the formation of the Athenian style, which, begin ning at the end of the Sixth Century B.C., as the result of a gradual transition from the Dipylon methods rapidly became so popular as practically to drive out of the general market all other styles. The reddish color of the clay was artificially heightened, and the decoration was applied in a very lustrous black paint, relieved only by the occasional employment of purple, red, and white. Toward the end of this period a new

style, the "red-figured," begins to displace the "black-figured" technique. Here the body of the vase is covered with the black glaze, the figures being left in the color of the clay, while details are represented by fine black lines. The greater delicacy which this style made possible brought it at once into favor, and in it were executed the great masterpieces of Greek ceramic art.

Painting in Greek archæology can hardly be separated from ceramics, architecture, and sculpture before the time of Polygnotus (Fifth Century B.C.) We therefore take up next the consideration of these two latter developments, in brief outline, referring for details to the special articles on GREEK ART; and ARCHITECTURE.

The history of the origin of Hellenic architecture rests largely upon conjecture and reasoning from analogy. Although in its development, as known to us from existing monuments, we have to deal with it as manifested chiefly in templebuilding (private dwellings being of comparatively little account among the Greeks), it is plain that we have to seek for its primitive principles in domestic structures, which were of sun-dried brick and wood. It is during this period that the temple forms became fixed, and the oldest stone buildings erected, though the full perfection of architecture is not manifested till the Fifth Century. The point, however, which chiefly concerns us in this place, is the rise of the two great orders, connected, as their names imply, with the two great branches of the Greek race the Dorians and the Ionians. The main distinguishing marks of these orders are to be found in the form of the columns employed; and it is to these that we must turn our attention here, leaving the discussion of the several varieties of temple, whether in antis (with the front recessed and columns between the projections of the side walls), prostyle (with columns across the front), amphiprostyle (with a front at either end), or peristyle (surrounded by columns), as well as the details of the architrave and roof, for another page.

The Doric column, which we find to have been employed in the Heræum at Olympia, in the old temple at Corinth, and in those of Selinus, as well as in other buildings of this and the succeeding periods, and which is traceable to the Seventh Century B.C., is characterized in general by the absence of a distinct base (though this seems clearly to have been an original element of this species of column), by an outward sweep at the top called the echinus, and by a square plate (the abacus) between the echinus and the architrave, as well as by the fact that the edges of the fluting (q.v.) are sharp, and not flat, as in the Ionic. The nearest prototypes of this form of column, which is marked, particularly in the oldest examples known to us, by great heaviness of proportion, seem to be Egyptian, although Doric architecture offers a new element in the entasis (or slight bulge) in the shaft, which serves to correct a familiar optical illusion.

The Ionic column, on the other hand, which is of lighter and more ornamental design, has always a distinct base, with a succession of moldings above it, while the grooves in its shaft do not meet in arrises, but are separated by flat bands. Its chief point of interest, the capital, consists of double spirals, parted in the earlier forms by a palmette device. Over the origin of

this form of capital much has been written; and although the question is not as yet settled, it seems likely that it goes back to an Oriental prototype, whether a conventionalized Assyrian palm-form or a derivative of the Egyptian lotus. See American Journal of Archæology 1886, pp. 1-20, "A proto-Ionic Capital," by J. T. Clarke; id., pp. 267-285, "A Doric Shaft and Base Found at Assos," same author (containing a full bibliography of the subject in both articles); Goodyear, id., p. 271 sqq. (an attempt to derive all palmette as well as lotus patterns from the Egyptian lotus), and especially, Puchstein, Das ionische Capital (Berlin, 1887).

The Corinthian capital, with its acanthus leaves, so extensively used by the Romans on account of its more elaborate character, may be considered a variety of the Ionic influenced by metal-work. It does not come into use until the next period, and was never very common until after the Fourth Century B.C. (Cf. Baumeister, op. cit., art. Baukunst, with the authorities there cited.)

While in painting, metal-work, and architecture, it is possible to trace the connection from the Mycenaean Age, in sculpture the line seems abruptly broken. It is not till the latter part of the Seventh Century B.C. that monumental sculpture, whether in the round or in relief, again begins to develop among the Hellenes. We find shapeless fetiches of wood and stone venerated in various parts of Greece down to the Second Century A.D., and later. A step beyond this primitive worship brings us to rude cultus-statues of wood and stone. We should expect the same Oriental influences to manifest themselves here as in the case of ceramic art; and when we look to the early statues themselves, such as the various so-called Apollo-figures of the Seventh and Sixth centuries (typical is the famous "Apollo of Tenea," in Munich), we seem to find unmistakably Egyptian elements. The angularity of the figure, the heavy masses of hair, the high set of the ears, the advancement of the left leg in such statues are unmistakable reminis cences of Egyptian works, with which the Greeks were especially brought into contact about this period. On the other hand, statues like the "Nicandra" of Islos, the "Hera" of Samos, and other closely draped female figures, with the feet just appearing below the drapery, may be compared with the seated statues from Branchidæ, in

the British Museum, and with what seem to be their older Chaldæan prototypes from Tel-lo. The closely draped standing female figures show markedly the influence of sculpture in wood; either from the flat board, as the "Nicandra," or the round log, as the "Hera." Such works are frequently spoken of as Xoana. Though the inspiration for these types may have been derived

from the Asiatic connections of the Ionians, and the trade with Egypt through Naucratis, the Greek artist was by no means a mere imitator, but early began to strive after development and variety along various lines.

The series of works of archaic sculpture from the period under discussion has rapidly increased through recent excavations, and we are able to trace with tolerable clearness the attempts made by the vigorous Greek artists to gain increased naturalness and lifelikeness in their figures, while gradually acquiring the full mastery of material